


Always Someone Better

by Haberdasher



Series: Twitch Plays Pokemon [51]
Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Twitch Plays Pokemon - Fandom
Genre: Gen, Suicidal Thoughts, Twitch Plays Black, Twitch Plays Black 2, Twitch Plays Blaze Black 2, Twitch Plays Pokemon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-25
Updated: 2014-12-25
Packaged: 2018-03-03 13:08:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,135
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2851850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Haberdasher/pseuds/Haberdasher
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jimmy learns about Cly becoming the new Champion of Unova.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Always Someone Better

After the voices left, Jimmy wasn’t sure what there was left for him to do. He’d dreamed of being famous his whole life, but he’d never given any thought to what would come next. Part of him wanted to follow N’s example, to fly away on his Reshiram as far as he could, to land in some distant land where nobody knew his name or his story. Part of him wanted to stay in the limelight as long as possible, no matter what it took, and to enjoy every moment that he could of living out his childhood dream. (Jimmy always though of the time before the voices’ arrival as his childhood, though he was still little more than a child, at least physically; something had changed within him during that journey, when he experienced pain that few adults could comprehend, his childish naivete erased in a few short days.)

Paralyzed between the enticing thought of two extremes, Jimmy chose neither. He became a hermit, avoiding the reporters until all but the most persistent wrote him off as a lost cause, shielding himself with walls of brick and stone from a reality he still couldn’t quite accept.

And so it was that, two years after his adventure, Jimmy saw Iris’ face on the TV.

He turned the volume up and scooted closer to the television set. He was glad that Iris was Champion now, even when he’d fought so hard to replace Alder after his mind went quiet; she was young, yes, but experienced, and she chose to take on the position of her own accord, not based upon the urging of hundreds of voices. And she had reached out to him, after all was said and done, made sure that he wasn’t angry at her for being his replacement. But anger had been the last thing on his mind; Jimmy had felt strangely free, free from the responsibility to challenge all who came by with the shobby team the voices had cobbled together, free from speaking over and over again about his journey, and how the voices had abandoned him when he had come so close to victory.

"But the biggest news this morning is Iris being overturned as Unova Champion! That’s right folks, there’s a newbie in the ranks- and, just like two years ago, it’s an up-and-comer who blew through the ranks in record time! Say hello to our new Champion, Cly!"

The camera panned onto Cly, and as soon as Jimmy saw the girl he knew, before she spoke up to confirm it. He knew that pattern of pacing anywhere. The voices had left him before helping him become Champion; this girl was Champion- had been, the all-too-perky reporter claimed, for several hours now- and they still hadn’t left.

And she was smiling.

"I-I never… thought I’d be here…"

As Jimmy watched Cly twitch, saw her fresh scars and filthy clothes, he suddenly realized that he had gained at least one thing from pursuing the Championship on his own. He hadn’t had to face the cameras like this, still struggling to speak, frozen in place until  _they_ dictated otherwise. His occasional stutters upon being crowned Champion were all his own, and seeing that girl on screen barely able to force out a sentence without pause, he found a strange sort of comfort in that responsibility. And he knew from experience that the news would play this video, and the hundreds like it, ad nauseam. He’d never been able to escape from clips showing his stumbling over a word or two; how much more would this girl regret seeing herself on video for days on end, on-camera flaws that weren’t even really her fault?

Yet, as she rambled on about what an honor it was to be Champion, Cly still smiled from ear to ear.

Her team stood behind her, and Jimmy couldn’t help but examine it. Fully-evolved Pokemon, the lot of them, when he hadn’t been able to evolve a single one. Strong, too, by the looks of them. And it was actually a fairly-balanced team, from what he’d learned of battle strategy over the past two years. Not the best team he’d seen while fighting for his position as Champion, but for the voices, it was downright impressive; no duplicates, no overlaps, all things that could hold their own in a fight. It was little wonder that she’d won, even after the Elite Four had trained nonstop to repel all but the most serious competitors, even with every attack she ordered dictated by the voices’ whims. She had rightfully earned the position of Unova’s Champion. No, that wasn’t quite right-  _they_ had earned the Championship… but not for him.

And she had an Emboar.

And seeing the Emboar brought Jimmy’s mind back to that day he’d tried so hard to forget, when he’d let his guard down after the thrill of escaping the Entralink, so excited about winning his first badge, and then… His beloved Pokemon were gone, all of them, and it was his hands that did the deed. Not at his own orders, true, but that wasn’t enough to erase the guilt, to stop the nightmares that had plagued him since the first time they’d let him rest. And this girl had the Pokemon that they had denied him, all grown up and in the Hall of Fame.

Jimmy started shaking and pacing, as rapidly and violently as he had during his journey two years ago, as his mind raced with new thoughts of what he needed to do. The thoughts that he had briefly entertained in N’s castle rushed back with a vengeance, and there were no voices to force him back now, to make him keep going despite the pain, no matter how much he fought; his life was his own through and through now, and he could do whatever he wished with it. He eyed the window in his room, but found it to be a poor substitute for the castle’s cliffs.

A voice startled Jimmy out of his reverie.

"A-and I want to thank Jimmy, too, for, uh… being first, I guess, and I wish they could’ve been as nice to you as they were to me, and, well, we’ll have to- to talk? After… later? I’m glad I knew your story before… before… you know, this. So y-yeah… thanks for all that, really, thank you."

Jimmy bounced onto his couch, turned the TV volume down, and sighed. The voices may not care about him… but at least this Cly girl seemed to care. And if one person still cared about him, still understood at least a fragment of all he had been through and truly sympathized with his pain… well, it was something, at least. Something better than the cliffs, at any rate.


End file.
